Photos

With thanks to Nadine for some of these photos and the theatre programme cover.

Overview

The Time of Your Life is a portrait of American working-class life, with the action taking place over the course of an afternoon and night during October 1939.

The play's focus is a San Francisco dive, the grandly named Nick's Pacfic Street Saloon Restaurant and Entertainment Palace, where the locals seek refuge from the troubled outside world. Among the regulars is Kitty Duval, nostalgic for her homeland.

Notes

ZoŽ arrived in Stratford for the first preview of The Time of Your Life the very next day after her previous stage production, The Importance of Being Earnest, had ended. This is proof, if it were needed, of how busy and in-demand she is as an actress.

In 1984, ZoŽ earned an Olivier Award nomination for Actress of the Year in a Supporting Role for her performance in The Time of Your Life.

Press coverage

'The ever delightful ZoŽ Wanamaker is superb as Kitty Duval, plangently dreaming of home in Poland in the dťbris of a collapsed family business and the shame of being a hooker,' praised Michael Coveney, after The Time of Your Life had transferred to The Pit.

Reviewing this 'beautiful production', the Guardian's Michael Billington was reminded of The Hostage, 'which has the same qualities of plotless bonhomie'. Zoe appeared in a production of The Hostage in 1971.